Tips & tricks

Snapshotting the window positions and sizes

Start the MUI settings interface by selecting "Settings/MUI...",
then go to the "Windows" section and make sure the third of the little
system gadget buttons is activated. After saving the settings, every
window will have an additional system gadget in the upper right corner

one click on this gadget will snapshot the actual size and position of the window for future sessions.

Avoiding context menus from getting on your way

The context menus for the folder & message lists may get in your way
and prevent you from using the usual menu item shortcuts unless you move
the pointer outside the list. Unfortunately this is a bug in MUI <=3.8,
which can only worked around by disabling the context menus themselves
in Configuration/Lists .

Moving "YAM" program directory to another partition or directory

Moving your YAM directory to another place is a procedure
requiring four steps:

Quit YAM if it is currently running.

Copy your YAM directory to the new place with a tool that allows
you to preserve the original file protection bits, datestamps and
comments. This is needed to prevent your mail archives from getting
mangled in the process. Example:
(The "CLONE" switch for Copy is paramount here, as it will prevent
your mail from getting their status information (read, new, etc.) lost.)

1.RAM Disk:> copy YAM DH2:Comms/mail/YAM/ ALL QUIET CLONE

Lastly, update your PROGDIR:.users file to make sure it points to the
new mail directory. If you fail to do so, YAM will keep trying to
read/create/etc. the folders in the old place. Beware!

Finally, if you can run YAM again in the new place and all seems
to work fine, deleting YAM and all its files from the old place should
be a safe operation now.

Avoiding excessive disk trashing on startup

On startup, YAM checks the indices of all its folders against the
datestamp of the directory where they are stored (the "Rebuilding
folders' indices" part). Under normal circumstances, since filesystems
update a directory datestamp whenever its contents are modified, both
the index and the directory should have the same datestamp, and therefore
this stage shouldn't take too long.

However, if for some reason an index is found to be older than the
directory where it is stored, YAM will assume that something has changed
in the folder without being written back to the index, so it will promptly
delete the current index and rescan the whole folder to create a new one,
which can indeed take a long time.

Possible reasons for an index not to be in sync with the directory are:

Faulty or inexistant battery backed up clock, causing impredictable
results especially if you are not aware of the problem or simply
forget to set the system time manually.

A faulty filesystem, not updating a directory datestamp whenever
its contents change.

Using Mailing list support settings properly

YAM offers a set of settings meant to support mailing lists that
do not set the "Reply-To:" field correctly or require some sort of
special handling. As of V2.4, the default signature selection is
also part of these settings.

First and foremost, enter the mailing list address as a pattern in
the To: pattern field, e.g. "#?mylist@…#?" (without the quotes,
of course). This way, these settings will be used whenever you start
a new message or reply to an already existing message while this is
the current folder.

Let's see a few examples that demonstrate how you can use these
settings to your advantage.

I want to use an alternate signature when posting to a certain mailing list.

Just select the desired signature using the bottom gadget. New messages
started while this is the current folder will always use this signature,
even if signatures are disabled in Configuration/Signature .

For replies to use this signature no matter which folder is currently
selected, you need to fill the next gadget with the address to the
mailing list.

The mailing list server does not set a "Reply-To:" address and thus my replies end up being sent to the original sender.

Just enter the mailing list address in the To: address field. This way
all the replies will be sent here by default, no matter which folder
is actually selected; a private reply can still be forced with
<Shift> + [Reply].

New messages started while this is the current folder will also be sent
here by default.

I need to email additional recipients when posting to a certain mailing list.

Just add them to the contents of the To: address field, and all of them
will be put in the "To:" address of your message as well. This way
it is very easy to keep other people up to date on something, as it
is sometimes needed when posting to certain development-orientated
mailing lists.

I want to use a specific "From:" and/or "Reply-To:" address when posting to a certain mailing list.

Just enter those addresses in the From: address and Reply-To: address
fields, respectively. These addresses will be used automatically on
replies to messages where the "To:" address matches the To: pattern,
and in new messages started while this is the current folder.

Please note that only one address can be entered into these fields.
Also, some mail servers refuse to transmit messages apparently not
originating from within their own domain.

Setting Daylight Savings time properly (AutoDST)

Amiga systems are lacking one important feature concerning the
timezone handling - there is no method in Locale to indicate that a
system is currently operating within daylight saving time. It also lacks
the possibility to automatically detect the change from/to daylight saving.
This could lead to problems if you send emails while your timezone
settings are incorrect just because you forgot to set the DST settings
correct.

As this is a common problem on AmigaOS systems, there are also some,
more or less, good third party solutions for automatic DST setting/switching.
YAM currently supports 4 methods to indicate if your system operates in
DST mode or not. While starting, YAM tries to find several environment
variables which are normally generated/modified by such AutoDST tools:

ENV:IXGMTOFFSET
ixemul specific gmtoffset variable that is used/modified by the ixtimezone tools of the geekgadgets package.

If YAM was able to find one of these four environment variables, it
will automatically adjust the Daylight Savings setting of the configuration
and disable the possibility to switch DST manually within YAM. Please note
that if such a AutoDST variant was found, YAM will also watch this variable
for any change, so that as soon as a AutoDST tool changes the DST settings,
YAM`s DST setting gets refresh accordingly.

So if you want to get rid of all this manual DST back/forward switching
each year, simply install one of the above (or similar) AutoDST system and
you should never have to worry about all that timezone mess.